Midland High girls win big again over Dow

Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, January 30, 2010

Beating Dow High by double digits in December was a big deal for Tiarra Carter and her Midland High teammates.

Doing it a second time was even better.

Carter scored 13 points and led a strong rebounding effort as the Chemics shut down the host Chargers 50-24 Friday night in Saginaw Valley League girls' basketball.

"Obviously I thought we could beat them, but it's hard to beat a team twice in one season," said Carter, a sophomore forward. "To beat them by as much as we did was really exciting."

A packed crowd at the Dow gym watched as eighth-ranked Midland improved to 4-1 in the SVL and 11-1 overall, while ninth-ranked Dow dropped to 6-1 and 13-2 — with both losses having come to the Chemics.

After seeing her Chemics defeat the Chargers 43-24 in a nonleague game at Midland High on Dec. 22, the last thing Midland coach Elaine Mahabir expected on Friday was another blowout.

"I know the history of this (rivalry)," she said. "I've been telling our kids all week that it was going to be close all the way to the buzzer."

Dow coach Bob Wellman had a simple analysis: the Chemics came to play, and his team didn't.

"This was identical to the first game," Wellman said. "They wanted it a lot more than we did. They beat us in every facet of the game."

Midland's win tightens up a great SVL race. Fifth-ranked Saginaw Arthur Hill leads the league at 6-0, followed by Dow (6-1), Saginaw High (4-1) and Midland (4-1).

The Chargers had scored more than 50 points in each of their last four games.

"We can't play that type of ball and expect to win, ever," Wellman said.

The Chemics, meanwhile, can expect to go pretty far if they keep playing like they did Friday night.

Six Midland players scored at least four points, and the Chemics shot 17 of 30 (57 percent) from the field and 13 of 16 (81 percent) from the free throw line.

"If you put an emphasis (defensively) on one player, it opens up opportunities for others," Mahabir said of her team's offensive depth.

Dow's 6-foot-3 center, Becca Mills, who was held to three points in the first game against Midland, got only three in the first half on Friday. She came back with 11 points in the second half to finish with 14 for the game, but no other Charger scored after halftime.

"We respect Becca greatly," Mahabir said. "But at the same time, we respect their outside shooters. Our biggest thing is to make sure we're not giving up any easy ones. It didn't matter who was shooting."

Dow actually kept Midland off the scoreboard for the first three-plus minutes of the game while taking a 3-0 lead.

But the Chemics then got in gear and rolled off 11 straight points from four different scorers. Mills countered with a 3-pointer to cut the Midland lead to 11-6 after one quarter.

The Chargers kept it close early in the second quarter. Sarah Arent's basket cut Midland's lead to 16-13 with six minutes to go.

But Dow went scoreless for the rest of the quarter and Midland went on a 9-0 run, including 3-pointers from Amy Lane and Jessica Jarema, to go into halftime with a 25-13 lead.

Mills scored seven points for Dow in the third quarter, but the Chemics got four points each from Carter, Jessica Jarema and Dani Blake and stretched their lead to 39-20 after three quarters.

The Chemics then steadily pulled away in the fourth.

Blake and Jessica Jarema each finished with nine points for Midland, and Jennifer Jarema added six.

Besides Mills, no Dow player scored more than four points, and only four got in the scoring column.

Several big matchups are coming up in the SVL. Arthur Hill plays Saginaw today, visits Midland next Friday, and then hosts Dow on Feb. 26.

"We've got a couple of big (games) left," Mahabir said. "We try not to let (the SVL race) be the only driving force, but it is a big one. Our goal is to be playing our best basketball by March 1 (the beginning of the district tournament)."

Wellman pointed out that despite the loss, his team is still right in the race.

"I told (my team) that we're not out of the SVL race," he said. "We can't give up on that goal."